As an aside to my regular readers: My wife now has a regularly-scheduled medical appointment on Tuesday which I attend. This has made the Wednesday publication of my essays somewhat difficult due to lack of time. I am contemplating a permanent switch to a Friday publication date for my essays, or taking a one-week hiatus to pre-write an essay over the weekend for the week ahead.
There comes a point when Younger Men are no longer cowed by the Ruling Regime's 'Punishments,' Threats, etc. Once there are enough such Men of said disposition, you have the requisite Fearlessness & Courage to (shall we say) try out somewhat more 'audacious things.'
This is especially true for the Younger Bros who are Imprisoned in their Teens to early 20s, & come out in a few months from said forced Summer Vacation. Such experiences Mentally Fortify them & make all Regime talking points (i.e. 'We will Shoot &/or Jail &/or Torture You!') Utterly Moot.
Afterward, all they really need is (1) Proper Training & Know-how & (2) A Reason to Fight. You get both of these, & then it's just a Numbers game culminating in an exciting Field Trip ☺️
Oh, and that big old pot of German gold in the sealed boxcar didn't hurt.
(Fun fact: When I was a grad student, we hosted a Russian physicist at our house for a week. A few hours before he left he was lamenting what had happened to his country. When I told him about the German gold he was incredulous. Alas, the only reference I had handy was a copy of "None Dare Call it Conspiracy." I gave him the copy and he took it to the Soviet Union.
Soon, the Berlin Wall came down, and Vladimir Zhironovsky was a major contender for the Russian presidency. Zhironovsky sounded like he was quoting "None Dare Call it Conspiracy.
I'll take a Doof who acts over a chad who harrumphs.
As I was told when I attended a school at the conservative Leadership Institute: "You are a weirdo." This was addressed to the entire body.
While the number of people who talk politics is huge, the number who actually volunteer to work phone banks, walk neighborhoods, work booths, network with potential affiliate groups, etc. is tiny. This is true even for the major parties. When Ron Paul ran for president as a Republican, a ragtag band of libertarians, hippies and gold bugs filled up enough convention seats to terrify the established powers. They had to rewrite rules as they went in order to keep Ron Paul from speaking to the television audience.
The plan should be two-pronged. On the surface, say things that speak to the hindbrain and promise women, loot, and glory. In private, accumulate wealth and connections to deal in secrets with people of similar influence. Make interpersonal communication great again.
It should also be clear to all within the next few years that all immigrants, in Minecraft, were only ever guests; that everything is money except bank notes; that women will sleep with the winners, but they don’t care who was right; that the rules were written so that those who break them can win—and all of this because we say so. Shift the focus of delta male loyalty away from the rule book.
The emergence of such a theoretical revolutionary movement requires a few things: 1) a coherent theory. It doesn't need to be philosophically sophisticated or even logical, only internally consistant. 2) Simple enough to intice the masses, but subtle enough to be endlessly expanded upon. Complexity is the enemy of successful memes. 3 ) Luck. Like fame and fortune, it's a numbers game. It requires the right person with the right idea at the right time.
I didn't include dedicated followers because that's a variable we have no direct control over. Businesses, entertainers, politicians, everyone needs groupies. The question is how to get them. The answer is: clever marketing. Lenin used a 137 page book. We must make due with 60 second TikTok videos. In the 21st century, regardless of the essentials of the movement, we need to SELL it.
- Make sure you always offer a vision of a better future.
- Provide people with a solid, clear framework for understanding the world that can be easily communicated person-to-person, so that when people are having a conversation about some current event someone can explain that event in the context of the framework. Think how well the "nation of immigrants" trope worked and make something similar.
- Constantly shoot holes in the enemy's worldview, make them look like fools. Show them to be hypocrites and liars. Show that their ideas cause real harm to people. Focus on the harm they are doing.
- Aim for converting the top influential people - most people download their opinions about the world from them. You don't have to convince the world, just a handful of powerful people. They will convince the people. Imagine how a single segment on some mainstream news shows (60 Minutes for example) about HBD could change the world forever. Keep pushing until your reach that turning point.
- Don't ever, ever give up. We will win this. History has and will be changed by small dedicated groups of people.
Hard to think what any unified theory is as the Right is just made up of those who transgressed some Left taboo at some point in history. We all have little in common except hating the Left. "Inequality" or "health" would be the one defining word I think but hard to see how that shakes out
Douglas Hyde’s “Dedication and Leadership” talked about this too. The Lenins / communists of the world asked for huge, sweeping changes - glorious things. No small asks. It worked.
Wow, apologies for being somewhat off-topic, but I watched your linked TEDx talk years ago, with no idea who you were, and had periodically tried to find it again for clearly and concisely making its point, but had had no luck and gave up at some point. Reading this, I followed the link and was shocked to find "that one talk comparing quality of media to quality of food" was by someone who has become a favorite writer and thinker.
So, thanks very much for the talk and for linking to it!
(Also, thanks for this essay and the follow up, they were great, but I don't have anything substantive to add).
Thanks so much for the kind words on my TEDx talk! I'm gratified by the number of people who have mentioned it to me as meaningful or influential. In retrospect (looking at the rise of TikTok etc) it was kind of prophetic... :|
One way to change the course of history is to change the bribe system.
A bit of imagination: there is a new rule for a post-modern taxation system that emphasizes tolerance, inclusion and respect for all lifestyles and states of mind, in order to enhance the resilience of all the moist robots out there who may have felt excluded from public life all these years of sandbox planned chaos with a fake virus. In perfect harmony with that, it is now allowed for ***individuals only*** (nor corporations, churches or families) to be a conscious objector of any form of taxation, impost, tariff or even fines.
We might (might!) see a rush toward Duginist-inspired praxeologies. (I'm not sure, some people really like their BDSM.)
I argue that, because of the world-famous logical consistency of all social demonrats, they would not become conscious objectors. (LMAOOOOO!)
Therefore, only the people who actually like big government projects will be paying for them, as Wotan intended.
Then, the general bribe system and all its subsystems will collapse, and, after the dust settles, the survivors will have to rethink the entire money loan business.
I imagine that before such blissful postmodern legislative reform would pass, the CDC libertarians and their 33 marks of clotshots in their rubber arms would take exception and quickly snipe everyone with witty articles defending the statue quo, emphasizing the importance of Stoic philosophy of endurance and internal freedom, as well as proclaiming that Aristotelian logic should rule "υπέρ όλα" while conceding a couple of minor points to the right Hegelians. Do not push that red button!
The Bible teaches us explicitly and also in numerous allegories, to bot become jealous when evildoers appear to prosper. Just because certain methods *have and do* work for our enemy, does not mean that adopting those strategies will prosper our side. The opposite is true.
Your proposed project of constructing and furthermore shackling ourselves to a rigorously-elaborated ideology achieves the following:
1.) It encourages the most intelligent amongst us to indulge their own autistic tendencies and to channels their energies into intellectual surrogate activities.
2.) It paints a convenient target on our backs for our enemies to orient themselves against. A guerrilla rebel wears camouflage for obvious reasons. We know that the opposition seeks to identify and single us out. We are well served to frustrate their efforts.
3.) It elevates consensus as a guiding principle. We are not like our enemies. We are not a mob of flocking starlings. We needn’t be herded. Whereas the opposition can only find strength in numbers, we are capable self-directed success. It’s why they hate us.
4.) It undermines the most promising large scale trend of our age: the growing en mass abandonment of ideological programming. Our society is afflicted with an over-abundance of ideological programming, and every one of us is familiar with the particular ideological hurdles we each overcame to get here; we can each, therefore, appreciate the ideological fetters constraining those peers we left behind. The refuge from ideology is not ideology. It is, rather, reality. We ought not adorn the refuge with signs resembling those that folks are fleeing.
Well, I strongly disagree, but I've had this conversation with many right-wingers and it doesn't lead anywhere productive, so will simply state my disagreement and move on. Rest assured I will not attempt to shackle you to anything!
I think the idea that one can find a refuge from ideology in reality is mistaken. A lot of right-wingers think ideology is a bad thing. I don't. I consider "ideology" to be more or less synonymous with "philosophy of life" and I think everyone inevitably and necessarily has one, for the reasons I've explained at length elsewhere on this blog.
Your "ideology," as I use the word, would be Christianity. (I am not asserting that Christianity is *merely* an ideology, but that it meets the criteria to fulfill the role of one as I use the word.)
Now, I don't know if you're a Christian Nationalist, but I consider Christian Nationalism to be an example of a dissident right-wing ideology that could fulfill the ideological requirement of "What is to be Done". I can *easily* imagine a powerful dissident right-wing movement with fervent and committed Christian activists aiming to bring about a (Re)-Christianized America. The revolutionary vanguard would effectively be political missionaries and the theory would be Christian Dominion. These political missions would know what their objective was, they'd know what their values were, they'd know the Bible and the Constitution and the legal arguments about both, etc. Such a movement would be more powerful than the disparate and conflicting movement we currently have. (I myself am not a Christian Nationalist but if no one comes up with an alternative, I think that's what will probably emerge as the dissident right's ideology.)
You’re certainly right about that, depending on how one defines ideology. Those who abandon God worship something, idols. But I understood your post as defining ideology in a strict political sense.
Ideology in practice is a luxury afforded to the victors, that we can say for sure. Whether ideology helps to achieve victory, we can debate.
I am an extremely ardent Christian, and would love to be governed by a godly prince like, but with regards to our thing and Christian nationalism, what I have seen is that the degree to which we adopt Christianity—as an ideology, is the degree to which we sow division amongst ourselves.
I side with the Zman. He says that we have two questions to answer:
“Who are we?” and “who decides?”
Reality is, both those questions have been asked and answered for us.
1. We are human beings made by God and in the image of God.
2. We decide.
++++++++++++++
It is obvious to everyone....
Representative democracy has failed the people, the Citizens, the sapient human beings from whom the authority for Government actually springs.
And because there is nothing more important to us and our sacred posterity than our national sovereignty, We, The Citizens, must now stand up and inform our representatives that they, having broken their Oaths and failed in their Duty to the office in which they were entrusted, are in Breach of the contract and must now Vacate the building.
This is easier said than done and we must also put into place a Fourth Branch of Government that will empower the Citizens to directly participate in “promoting the general welfare, and providing for the common defense.”
We, The Citizens, are sapient human beings made by God and in the image of God, and we realize that with God all good things are possible.
Because Citizenship, true citizenship, is not about writing letters to government officials or voting some good person into office.
Citizenship is about the Ratification or Annulment of each line of every law, rule, regulation and supreme court decision on the books or that is on the docket waiting to be turned into law, policy and taxes.
With this new and improved understanding of government of the people, by the people and for the people we will also be able to accommodate citizen proposals for program and infrastructure maintenance and improvements.
Nothing short of this is going to ameliorate the situation for the body politic.
During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Ross Perot observed that: "a general lack of accountability among elected officials and those in the bureaucracy is the one specific reason that the people of America suffered…. and our only means of correction is to inspect their work and hold them accountable.”
Mr. Perot went on to note that this can easily be done with computer programs.
He called it: THE ELECTRONIC TOWNHALL.
“It is only logical that it will become our Fourth Branch of Government”, he said.
Objective reality:
the voting members of the US Congress and the State Legislatures do not have enough time to read, comprehend or debate any of the laws they vote on. They vote 100 times a day, every five minutes, while in session.
Approximate absolute facts:
a. Every day that the Congress and Legislatures are in session 100
new bills are introduced and distributed.
b. The representatives are given two weeks to review the laws before they are brought up for The Vote.
c. Two weeks into the session they begin voting on the Laws that were previously introduced, while newer laws are introduced.
d. Many laws are in excess of two thousand pages.
e. The arithmetic demonstrates that the elected representative does not have the time to even read the name of the Law much less the content of it.
f. Since the Representatives cannot evaluate 200 thousand pages of law speak per day, they vote the way their advisors tell them to vote.
g. Thus, they have all forfeited their delegated obligation to represent us.
h. Representative government is obsolete. It does not work for us.
And the only way to prevent these over worked and fallible people from making even more tragic mistakes, from which we, and the rest of the world, might never recover is to include ourselves, The Citizens, from whom the authority for government comes in the first place, in the final decision making process.
The Electronic Congress
How it works:
1. Before a new law, tax, or expenditure can be put on the books it must first be Ratified by the Citizens.
2. Existing laws can be Annulled by the same super majority required to Ratify them.
This program can be applied to every level of government and will ultimately solve every problem we have.
To prevent chaos, the basic law, our Constitution and Bill of Rights, would be exempt from review.
Mr. Perot speculated that the Founding Fathers would probably have done the same had the technology been available in their day.
Just imagine:
We, The People, could actually direct the priorities and review the progress of the major agencies like the: CDC and NIH as well as the libraries, school boards and local police departments.
If our government truly is of the people, by the people and for the people then this is the only way forward.
How to implement it:
We talk about it until it is done.
A concerned Citizen could have AI parse a recent law or Supreme Court ruling into its actionable elements, apply the Ratify or Annul Questionnaire, then distribute the links.
Can I make money with this?
Of course, you can. Use AI to parse the laws you find most egregious into their component pieces. And then have it build the ballot / questionnaire along with some demographic background to make the game especially interesting. Charge a $1 per voter per law to deliver the results of the poll to the government officials and watch the evolution in real time.
The Electronic Townhall becomes the means by which the Authority of the Citizens is used to Ratify or Annul the Propositions of Government.
Ask the local school board for their agenda items, have AI parse the actionable elements, create a questionnaire, distribute it to the concerned citizens and then evaluate the results.
When Human Beings made in the image of God can see the results of their noblest and most sober thoughts, at such a scale, then there will be the moment where Our Benevolence and Good Will shall overcome Evil and then we can all live happily ever after.
Ross Perot publicly promised that if the People of America would elect him to The Presidency, he would give us The Electronic Townhall.
The Fourth Branch of Government will allow us to go from Chaos to Prosperity and a Life Worth Living … until the end of time.
We were created by God and in the image of God; we are human beings, not animals in a pen.
Without a System to govern all Areas of Life, you have ceded the Ground to everyone else who has such Systems. For them, your position simple translates to 'Moar for Us! 😍 '
When The Sinic, Islamic & Orthodox worlds see Westerners talk about distancing themselves from 'Ideology,' they see that as Fantastic news, since the Hegemon is about to Buckle decisively, its riches ripe for Spoliation & Conquest.
They are Civilizational Forces who are presently Foes of the West:
They are not 'Tribal,' since if one wants a 'Sphere of Influence,' one needs to grow out of merely Tribal Markers & make a 'Bigger play:'
For the Orthodox World, Russo-centrism had to make way for Eurasianism.
For the Sinic World, they had to pursue Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.
For the Islamic World, it will involve embracing the Khilafa... a Borderless, Multi-ethnic, Multi-confessional Empire with Islam as the Primary Baseline.
The 'West' will not be garnering an advantage by abandoning Civilizational unifiers & Ideology writ large... it will instead Rapidly Lose Everything if it does so.
It is already losing everything. And that loss of “everything” is punctuated by clear ideological forfeitures of the American(European frontiersman) Identity.
No need for Borging. Indeed, shackling candidates to a nationally unified ideology is a losing strategy! In a republic or democracy, one must balance one's values with the LOCAL window of electability.
It is possible to carry out a Reactionary agenda without electing a single true Reactionary. (However defined.) That's why I am trying to put together and train a coalition of kind of like minded people to carry out PARTS of my Reactionary agenda: the one's that like which are also locally viable.
Some resemblance to Lenin's Tortion Belt, but a better model would be the Fabians.
Yes, we're a complex blotch in the political hyperspace.
Threads that I see consistently are:
1. Against the heavy handed social engineering of today's governments.
2. Desire for community and family
3. Against world government, and generally against too much federal government.
4. Generally in favor of the idea of being your own boss vs. wage serfdom being the norm
5. Unlike Reaganites, have some distrust of giant corporations and the ultra rich in general.
Boiled down to two dimensions, I'd say a combination of more liberty and more personal economic freedom. The latter does require more equality than what we have today. The debt ridden wage serf is not free, even when the government is small.
The Law of Moses is solidly in this populist quadrant. So I want to incorporate serious Christians and Jews into the coalition -- while demonstrating to non believers that there is surprising [to the non-believer] amounts of wisdom in the Old Testament law.
-----
Or, just to set up an anchor point -- how about shooting for what mainstream America thought of itself prior to the Summer of Love [sic]?
Or your physiocratic platform could be the anchor point of the tent.
Either way, it's just about finding a rough center of a big tent. Small tents lose elections, as the Libertarians have demonstrated for a half century.
As an aside to my regular readers: My wife now has a regularly-scheduled medical appointment on Tuesday which I attend. This has made the Wednesday publication of my essays somewhat difficult due to lack of time. I am contemplating a permanent switch to a Friday publication date for my essays, or taking a one-week hiatus to pre-write an essay over the weekend for the week ahead.
Me & the Boyz Wish Mater all the Best in her treatment & recovery! 🙏 🕌
Inshallah, she will be much better in the coming days with the treatments! 💝 🥰️
Also, go for it Pater! Nothing wrong with taking a hiatus to focus more on Mater! 💖
We'll read it regardless, you just take good care of Mrs Woe.
Wishing Mrs Woe a speedy recovery.
Good luck!
I hope all is well, sir. My best wishes go with her.
There comes a point when Younger Men are no longer cowed by the Ruling Regime's 'Punishments,' Threats, etc. Once there are enough such Men of said disposition, you have the requisite Fearlessness & Courage to (shall we say) try out somewhat more 'audacious things.'
This is especially true for the Younger Bros who are Imprisoned in their Teens to early 20s, & come out in a few months from said forced Summer Vacation. Such experiences Mentally Fortify them & make all Regime talking points (i.e. 'We will Shoot &/or Jail &/or Torture You!') Utterly Moot.
Afterward, all they really need is (1) Proper Training & Know-how & (2) A Reason to Fight. You get both of these, & then it's just a Numbers game culminating in an exciting Field Trip ☺️
Oh, and that big old pot of German gold in the sealed boxcar didn't hurt.
(Fun fact: When I was a grad student, we hosted a Russian physicist at our house for a week. A few hours before he left he was lamenting what had happened to his country. When I told him about the German gold he was incredulous. Alas, the only reference I had handy was a copy of "None Dare Call it Conspiracy." I gave him the copy and he took it to the Soviet Union.
Soon, the Berlin Wall came down, and Vladimir Zhironovsky was a major contender for the Russian presidency. Zhironovsky sounded like he was quoting "None Dare Call it Conspiracy.
Probably a coincidence. But...)
First off, that's an awesome story.
Second, Lenin got the Gold because he was the Man with the Plan!
Maybe Lenin appealed to communists who were willing to act.
The later International Communist Conspiracy recruited primarily based on willingness to act -- which is the subject of my most recent post. https://rulesforreactionaries.substack.com/p/leadership-secrets-of-jesus-and-joseph
I'll take a Doof who acts over a chad who harrumphs.
As I was told when I attended a school at the conservative Leadership Institute: "You are a weirdo." This was addressed to the entire body.
While the number of people who talk politics is huge, the number who actually volunteer to work phone banks, walk neighborhoods, work booths, network with potential affiliate groups, etc. is tiny. This is true even for the major parties. When Ron Paul ran for president as a Republican, a ragtag band of libertarians, hippies and gold bugs filled up enough convention seats to terrify the established powers. They had to rewrite rules as they went in order to keep Ron Paul from speaking to the television audience.
Great points all.
The plan should be two-pronged. On the surface, say things that speak to the hindbrain and promise women, loot, and glory. In private, accumulate wealth and connections to deal in secrets with people of similar influence. Make interpersonal communication great again.
It should also be clear to all within the next few years that all immigrants, in Minecraft, were only ever guests; that everything is money except bank notes; that women will sleep with the winners, but they don’t care who was right; that the rules were written so that those who break them can win—and all of this because we say so. Shift the focus of delta male loyalty away from the rule book.
Well said, sir. (Just signed up for your substack.)
It's an honor, sir.
The emergence of such a theoretical revolutionary movement requires a few things: 1) a coherent theory. It doesn't need to be philosophically sophisticated or even logical, only internally consistant. 2) Simple enough to intice the masses, but subtle enough to be endlessly expanded upon. Complexity is the enemy of successful memes. 3 ) Luck. Like fame and fortune, it's a numbers game. It requires the right person with the right idea at the right time.
Lenin would argue you also need 2.5) a committed group to spread the theory
We can't guarantee 3, but we could do 1 - 2.5!
Please note that if simplicity is involved, when I say "we" I mean "other people"
I didn't include dedicated followers because that's a variable we have no direct control over. Businesses, entertainers, politicians, everyone needs groupies. The question is how to get them. The answer is: clever marketing. Lenin used a 137 page book. We must make due with 60 second TikTok videos. In the 21st century, regardless of the essentials of the movement, we need to SELL it.
Edit is functioning again.
Some suggestions:
- Make sure you always offer a vision of a better future.
- Provide people with a solid, clear framework for understanding the world that can be easily communicated person-to-person, so that when people are having a conversation about some current event someone can explain that event in the context of the framework. Think how well the "nation of immigrants" trope worked and make something similar.
- Constantly shoot holes in the enemy's worldview, make them look like fools. Show them to be hypocrites and liars. Show that their ideas cause real harm to people. Focus on the harm they are doing.
- Aim for converting the top influential people - most people download their opinions about the world from them. You don't have to convince the world, just a handful of powerful people. They will convince the people. Imagine how a single segment on some mainstream news shows (60 Minutes for example) about HBD could change the world forever. Keep pushing until your reach that turning point.
- Don't ever, ever give up. We will win this. History has and will be changed by small dedicated groups of people.
Good points. I agree in full.
Hard to think what any unified theory is as the Right is just made up of those who transgressed some Left taboo at some point in history. We all have little in common except hating the Left. "Inequality" or "health" would be the one defining word I think but hard to see how that shakes out
It's a major problem for us. We're rebels without a cause.
Douglas Hyde’s “Dedication and Leadership” talked about this too. The Lenins / communists of the world asked for huge, sweeping changes - glorious things. No small asks. It worked.
The parallels between the strategies in Dedication and Leadership and the New Testament are the subject of my latest post.
And yes, the techniques are effective. A whole lot of work. But a whole lot of fun.
We will gladly suffer the Tree of Woe for a few more days between essays so you can take care of the Mrs. Prayers of hope and healing... :)
Thank you from us both!
Wow, apologies for being somewhat off-topic, but I watched your linked TEDx talk years ago, with no idea who you were, and had periodically tried to find it again for clearly and concisely making its point, but had had no luck and gave up at some point. Reading this, I followed the link and was shocked to find "that one talk comparing quality of media to quality of food" was by someone who has become a favorite writer and thinker.
So, thanks very much for the talk and for linking to it!
(Also, thanks for this essay and the follow up, they were great, but I don't have anything substantive to add).
Cheers,
Jeff
Thanks so much for the kind words on my TEDx talk! I'm gratified by the number of people who have mentioned it to me as meaningful or influential. In retrospect (looking at the rise of TikTok etc) it was kind of prophetic... :|
All the best to Mrs. Woe.
As for what is to be done, Harold Covington already laid it out, but no one listened and now he's dead.
One way to change the course of history is to change the bribe system.
A bit of imagination: there is a new rule for a post-modern taxation system that emphasizes tolerance, inclusion and respect for all lifestyles and states of mind, in order to enhance the resilience of all the moist robots out there who may have felt excluded from public life all these years of sandbox planned chaos with a fake virus. In perfect harmony with that, it is now allowed for ***individuals only*** (nor corporations, churches or families) to be a conscious objector of any form of taxation, impost, tariff or even fines.
We might (might!) see a rush toward Duginist-inspired praxeologies. (I'm not sure, some people really like their BDSM.)
I argue that, because of the world-famous logical consistency of all social demonrats, they would not become conscious objectors. (LMAOOOOO!)
Therefore, only the people who actually like big government projects will be paying for them, as Wotan intended.
Then, the general bribe system and all its subsystems will collapse, and, after the dust settles, the survivors will have to rethink the entire money loan business.
I imagine that before such blissful postmodern legislative reform would pass, the CDC libertarians and their 33 marks of clotshots in their rubber arms would take exception and quickly snipe everyone with witty articles defending the statue quo, emphasizing the importance of Stoic philosophy of endurance and internal freedom, as well as proclaiming that Aristotelian logic should rule "υπέρ όλα" while conceding a couple of minor points to the right Hegelians. Do not push that red button!
Not-Brahms, but from the Anglo-Saxon sphere of influenza: youtu.be/watch?v=DiIAuPU9Klg
We lose because we don’t do what it takes to win. Doing what it takes to win is the opposite of holding principles, the opposite of ideology.
Also, *doing* what must be done, means abandoning ideology, not cultivating it.
The Bible teaches us explicitly and also in numerous allegories, to bot become jealous when evildoers appear to prosper. Just because certain methods *have and do* work for our enemy, does not mean that adopting those strategies will prosper our side. The opposite is true.
Your proposed project of constructing and furthermore shackling ourselves to a rigorously-elaborated ideology achieves the following:
1.) It encourages the most intelligent amongst us to indulge their own autistic tendencies and to channels their energies into intellectual surrogate activities.
2.) It paints a convenient target on our backs for our enemies to orient themselves against. A guerrilla rebel wears camouflage for obvious reasons. We know that the opposition seeks to identify and single us out. We are well served to frustrate their efforts.
3.) It elevates consensus as a guiding principle. We are not like our enemies. We are not a mob of flocking starlings. We needn’t be herded. Whereas the opposition can only find strength in numbers, we are capable self-directed success. It’s why they hate us.
4.) It undermines the most promising large scale trend of our age: the growing en mass abandonment of ideological programming. Our society is afflicted with an over-abundance of ideological programming, and every one of us is familiar with the particular ideological hurdles we each overcame to get here; we can each, therefore, appreciate the ideological fetters constraining those peers we left behind. The refuge from ideology is not ideology. It is, rather, reality. We ought not adorn the refuge with signs resembling those that folks are fleeing.
Well, I strongly disagree, but I've had this conversation with many right-wingers and it doesn't lead anywhere productive, so will simply state my disagreement and move on. Rest assured I will not attempt to shackle you to anything!
Which part
I think the idea that one can find a refuge from ideology in reality is mistaken. A lot of right-wingers think ideology is a bad thing. I don't. I consider "ideology" to be more or less synonymous with "philosophy of life" and I think everyone inevitably and necessarily has one, for the reasons I've explained at length elsewhere on this blog.
Your "ideology," as I use the word, would be Christianity. (I am not asserting that Christianity is *merely* an ideology, but that it meets the criteria to fulfill the role of one as I use the word.)
Now, I don't know if you're a Christian Nationalist, but I consider Christian Nationalism to be an example of a dissident right-wing ideology that could fulfill the ideological requirement of "What is to be Done". I can *easily* imagine a powerful dissident right-wing movement with fervent and committed Christian activists aiming to bring about a (Re)-Christianized America. The revolutionary vanguard would effectively be political missionaries and the theory would be Christian Dominion. These political missions would know what their objective was, they'd know what their values were, they'd know the Bible and the Constitution and the legal arguments about both, etc. Such a movement would be more powerful than the disparate and conflicting movement we currently have. (I myself am not a Christian Nationalist but if no one comes up with an alternative, I think that's what will probably emerge as the dissident right's ideology.)
You’re certainly right about that, depending on how one defines ideology. Those who abandon God worship something, idols. But I understood your post as defining ideology in a strict political sense.
Ideology in practice is a luxury afforded to the victors, that we can say for sure. Whether ideology helps to achieve victory, we can debate.
I am an extremely ardent Christian, and would love to be governed by a godly prince like, but with regards to our thing and Christian nationalism, what I have seen is that the degree to which we adopt Christianity—as an ideology, is the degree to which we sow division amongst ourselves.
I side with the Zman. He says that we have two questions to answer:
“Who are we?” and “who decides?”
Reality is, both those questions have been asked and answered for us.
1. We are human beings made by God and in the image of God.
2. We decide.
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It is obvious to everyone....
Representative democracy has failed the people, the Citizens, the sapient human beings from whom the authority for Government actually springs.
And because there is nothing more important to us and our sacred posterity than our national sovereignty, We, The Citizens, must now stand up and inform our representatives that they, having broken their Oaths and failed in their Duty to the office in which they were entrusted, are in Breach of the contract and must now Vacate the building.
This is easier said than done and we must also put into place a Fourth Branch of Government that will empower the Citizens to directly participate in “promoting the general welfare, and providing for the common defense.”
We, The Citizens, are sapient human beings made by God and in the image of God, and we realize that with God all good things are possible.
Because Citizenship, true citizenship, is not about writing letters to government officials or voting some good person into office.
Citizenship is about the Ratification or Annulment of each line of every law, rule, regulation and supreme court decision on the books or that is on the docket waiting to be turned into law, policy and taxes.
With this new and improved understanding of government of the people, by the people and for the people we will also be able to accommodate citizen proposals for program and infrastructure maintenance and improvements.
Nothing short of this is going to ameliorate the situation for the body politic.
During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Ross Perot observed that: "a general lack of accountability among elected officials and those in the bureaucracy is the one specific reason that the people of America suffered…. and our only means of correction is to inspect their work and hold them accountable.”
Mr. Perot went on to note that this can easily be done with computer programs.
He called it: THE ELECTRONIC TOWNHALL.
“It is only logical that it will become our Fourth Branch of Government”, he said.
Objective reality:
the voting members of the US Congress and the State Legislatures do not have enough time to read, comprehend or debate any of the laws they vote on. They vote 100 times a day, every five minutes, while in session.
Approximate absolute facts:
a. Every day that the Congress and Legislatures are in session 100
new bills are introduced and distributed.
b. The representatives are given two weeks to review the laws before they are brought up for The Vote.
c. Two weeks into the session they begin voting on the Laws that were previously introduced, while newer laws are introduced.
d. Many laws are in excess of two thousand pages.
e. The arithmetic demonstrates that the elected representative does not have the time to even read the name of the Law much less the content of it.
f. Since the Representatives cannot evaluate 200 thousand pages of law speak per day, they vote the way their advisors tell them to vote.
g. Thus, they have all forfeited their delegated obligation to represent us.
h. Representative government is obsolete. It does not work for us.
And the only way to prevent these over worked and fallible people from making even more tragic mistakes, from which we, and the rest of the world, might never recover is to include ourselves, The Citizens, from whom the authority for government comes in the first place, in the final decision making process.
The Electronic Congress
How it works:
1. Before a new law, tax, or expenditure can be put on the books it must first be Ratified by the Citizens.
2. Existing laws can be Annulled by the same super majority required to Ratify them.
This program can be applied to every level of government and will ultimately solve every problem we have.
To prevent chaos, the basic law, our Constitution and Bill of Rights, would be exempt from review.
Mr. Perot speculated that the Founding Fathers would probably have done the same had the technology been available in their day.
Just imagine:
We, The People, could actually direct the priorities and review the progress of the major agencies like the: CDC and NIH as well as the libraries, school boards and local police departments.
If our government truly is of the people, by the people and for the people then this is the only way forward.
How to implement it:
We talk about it until it is done.
A concerned Citizen could have AI parse a recent law or Supreme Court ruling into its actionable elements, apply the Ratify or Annul Questionnaire, then distribute the links.
Can I make money with this?
Of course, you can. Use AI to parse the laws you find most egregious into their component pieces. And then have it build the ballot / questionnaire along with some demographic background to make the game especially interesting. Charge a $1 per voter per law to deliver the results of the poll to the government officials and watch the evolution in real time.
The Electronic Townhall becomes the means by which the Authority of the Citizens is used to Ratify or Annul the Propositions of Government.
Ask the local school board for their agenda items, have AI parse the actionable elements, create a questionnaire, distribute it to the concerned citizens and then evaluate the results.
When Human Beings made in the image of God can see the results of their noblest and most sober thoughts, at such a scale, then there will be the moment where Our Benevolence and Good Will shall overcome Evil and then we can all live happily ever after.
Ross Perot publicly promised that if the People of America would elect him to The Presidency, he would give us The Electronic Townhall.
The Fourth Branch of Government will allow us to go from Chaos to Prosperity and a Life Worth Living … until the end of time.
We were created by God and in the image of God; we are human beings, not animals in a pen.
The Electronic Townhall
https://teletownhall.com/products/text-to-online-surveys/
https://publicinput.com/wp/online-town-hall/
https://www.govtech.com/archive/introducing-the-21st-century-city-hall.html
https://www.newdemocracy.com.au/2015/06/06/the-electronic-townhall/
https://abrogard.com/blog/2023/12/25/dont-write-to-congress/
Without a System to govern all Areas of Life, you have ceded the Ground to everyone else who has such Systems. For them, your position simple translates to 'Moar for Us! 😍 '
When The Sinic, Islamic & Orthodox worlds see Westerners talk about distancing themselves from 'Ideology,' they see that as Fantastic news, since the Hegemon is about to Buckle decisively, its riches ripe for Spoliation & Conquest.
They are Civilizational Forces who are presently Foes of the West:
They are not 'Tribal,' since if one wants a 'Sphere of Influence,' one needs to grow out of merely Tribal Markers & make a 'Bigger play:'
For the Orthodox World, Russo-centrism had to make way for Eurasianism.
For the Sinic World, they had to pursue Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.
For the Islamic World, it will involve embracing the Khilafa... a Borderless, Multi-ethnic, Multi-confessional Empire with Islam as the Primary Baseline.
The 'West' will not be garnering an advantage by abandoning Civilizational unifiers & Ideology writ large... it will instead Rapidly Lose Everything if it does so.
It is already losing everything. And that loss of “everything” is punctuated by clear ideological forfeitures of the American(European frontiersman) Identity.
No need for Borging. Indeed, shackling candidates to a nationally unified ideology is a losing strategy! In a republic or democracy, one must balance one's values with the LOCAL window of electability.
I lay it out with pictures here: https://rulesforreactionaries.substack.com/p/how-many-real-reactionaries-do-we
It is possible to carry out a Reactionary agenda without electing a single true Reactionary. (However defined.) That's why I am trying to put together and train a coalition of kind of like minded people to carry out PARTS of my Reactionary agenda: the one's that like which are also locally viable.
Some resemblance to Lenin's Tortion Belt, but a better model would be the Fabians.
The reactionary right doesn't even have an agenda, though. We don't have even basic agreement on values.
Yes, we're a complex blotch in the political hyperspace.
Threads that I see consistently are:
1. Against the heavy handed social engineering of today's governments.
2. Desire for community and family
3. Against world government, and generally against too much federal government.
4. Generally in favor of the idea of being your own boss vs. wage serfdom being the norm
5. Unlike Reaganites, have some distrust of giant corporations and the ultra rich in general.
Boiled down to two dimensions, I'd say a combination of more liberty and more personal economic freedom. The latter does require more equality than what we have today. The debt ridden wage serf is not free, even when the government is small.
The Law of Moses is solidly in this populist quadrant. So I want to incorporate serious Christians and Jews into the coalition -- while demonstrating to non believers that there is surprising [to the non-believer] amounts of wisdom in the Old Testament law.
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Or, just to set up an anchor point -- how about shooting for what mainstream America thought of itself prior to the Summer of Love [sic]?
These are definitely solid big-tent ideas.
Our folks are unable to coherently engage with their own natural identity, even though they are chiefly attacked on that basis.
Or your physiocratic platform could be the anchor point of the tent.
Either way, it's just about finding a rough center of a big tent. Small tents lose elections, as the Libertarians have demonstrated for a half century.